Mighty Max (toyline)

Mighty Max

The original Mighty Max logo
Type Dolls
Company Bluebird Toys
Country United Kingdom
Availability 1992–1996

Mighty Max was a series of toys that were manufactured by Bluebird Toys PLC in the UK in 1992, and designed by Big Monster Toys. The toys were similar to the earlier Polly Pocket toyline; however, these toys were marketed primarily towards young boys. In Canada and the USA, they were distributed by Irwin Toy Limited and Mattel Inc. respectively.[1][2] The original toyline consisted mainly of "Doom Zones" and "Horror Heads." "Doom Zones" were small playsets with a horror theme and featured miniature figurines of menacing creatures and the hero Max, a young boy with blond hair, jeans, a white t-shirt with a red "M" on it, and a baseball cap (the color varied based on the playset purchased) which also always had an "M" on it. The "Horror Heads" were smaller-sized playsets, also shaped like the heads of creatures and contained miniature figures. It was later adapted into a TV series, as well as a tie-in video game produced by Ocean Software for the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis.

Story

The background story of the toys was as follows:

Max's dad left him his old baseball cap. Trouble was, this was no ordinary baseball cap..."Gotta look the business" Max thought as he tweaked the cap's peak round to the side. "AAAARGH!" Suddenly, the world had gone weird and very unfriendly! The cap had changed colour! Something very strange was going on! He'd been caught in the Horror Zone. Stumbling from one terrifying adventure to another with only cryptic clues to help him escape...he was all alone. He was scared. But he was MIGHTY MAX, and he'd get back somehow!
Mighty Max Conquers the Temple of Venom - closed
Mighty Max Conquers the Temple of Venom - open

Television series

The redesigned logo.

In 1993, an American animated series was created based on the toys. After the series began to air, the characters Virgil and Norman and toys based on episodes of the series were added to the toyline to form a new series. The story on the packaging was revised accordingly, and a short-lived comic book series by Marvel UK was created as well. The appearance of Max changed considerably; he was no longer portrayed as a young boy but as a taller adolescent with longer hair and an untucked shirt, similar to his portrayal in the television series. The older Doom Zones, Horror Heads and playsets were re-released with the original story replaced with the revised one:

Max was bright and pretty good at getting in and out of trouble, but he'd never forget the day he broke his Mom's mysterious old statue and found the Cosmic Cap inside. How was he to know it made him 'the Mighty One', able to travel instantly from place to place by means of time Portals? And how were Max, his Cosmic Cap and his two friends and protectors, wise old Virgil and fearless Norman gonna' measure up against the ultimate evil of the Skull Master!!?

Toys

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Some of the toys featured a short comic on the back of the packaging summarizing Max's adventure in that zone.

Doom Zones

Series 1:

Series 2:

Series 3:

Some of the renames:

Some more infos about the doom zones (Wrote by Himber from his playset webside spectrumisgreen):

Heroes & Villains

A total of six figure sets were released, each including Max, Norman, Virgil and various villains and monsters. The first three were simply repaints of pre-existing figures that came with recent Doom Zones and Horror Heads as well as from a few of the bigger playsets. The second three, however, were all-new figures done in the style of the cartoon.

Horror Heads

Series 2

Monster Heads

These were playsets considerably smaller than even the Horror Heads, and did not actually open up. They each came with one monster/villain figure and a Max figure unique to that playset.

Hairy Heads (also known as Dread Heads)

Hairy Heads were only released on single cardbacks in the UK and Europe (where they were known as Scalps). In the US, they were called Dread Heads and released as bonuses with Doom Zones.

Shrunken Heads

The smallest Mighty Max playsets ever, the Shrunken Heads had little play value because of both their tiny size and lack of a detachable monster or villain figure to pit Max against (the majority of the Shrunken Heads did have an embossed and separately coloured monster as part of the molding on the wall or floor of the open set). However, the Shrunken Heads did come with a Max figure, and, like the Monster Heads, it was unique to that set. The first eight sets were original, while the remaining eight were based on episodes of the cartoon. The first eight originally came packaged in sets of two but later were released on separate cards by themselves. They were also available as cereal box prizes in some regions.

Battle Warriors

These were action figures which transformed into small playsets, based on the same principle as the Mighty Max Blasts Magus playset (see below) but on a much smaller scale.

Large-size playsets

It should be noted that Mighty Max Defies the Dread Star and Mighty Max Takes On Terror Talons are in fact the same playset, but came boxed differently and with different pieces. For instance, Dread Star featured a total of six alien villains, plus a "Skelemonster Robot" and a "Scavenger Vehicle." Terror Talons meanwhile had only five aliens, and no Scavenger Vehicle.

Mighty Max Assaults Skull Master was the only playset for a planned "Mega Heads" line. A second playset, based on Skull Master's minion Warmonger, was planned, but never produced despite being featured on a free poster depicting most of the later playsets.

McDonald's playsets

Watch Playsets

Official known released color variants

Influence

On the trail of the popular Mighty Max, other companies would soon implement the miniature playset style into their merchandise for properties including Star Wars, Godzilla, and Batman Forever. Such toys would often feature a character's head as the unfolded playset and an environment familiar to the property at hand (i.e. Batman's head unfolding to reveal the Batcave). Galoob's popular Micro Machines line already bore a similar scale to Mighty Max and created a variety of miniature Star Wars "head" playsets ranging in size. Playmates also introduced mini Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playsets in 1994 and continued producing them the following year.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Lawson, Carol (28 October 1993). "In Itty-Bitty Toys, Mega-Mega-Profits". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Stevenson, Tom (19 October 1995). "Bluebird sets up Disney link xxxx Bluebird". The Independent. London.
  3. ↑ Pope, Hammond 1998: 84
  4. ↑ Pope, Hammond 1998: 169
  5. ↑ 1994 Playmates Toys Catalog NinjaTurtles.com. Retrieved on 12-13-08.

Further reading

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